Mediaset promotes Adrian with youtubers. But they know nothing about it

In the long and complex relationship between television and YouTube, a new element is added: during the Studio Sport program, Mediaset has aired clips of some Italian youtubers, promoting the animated series Adrian. Too bad that the youtubers had said anything else.

Here we go again. The usual dichotomy between YouTube (and the internet in general) and traditional Italian television has rekindled, this time regarding the series Adrian.

But more than indignation, this time there seems to be a generic one resignation, because we know by now that television stations can afford to manipulate the work of others without further consequences. Let's see what happened and comment on the story.

Adrian: the Mediaset event series

If you don't know, Adrian is an animated series created and written by Adriano Celentano, with drawings by Milo Manara and animations by the North Korean Studio SEK.

No, okay, you know better than me what the hell it is Adrian, the series more cringey and more uncomfortable than 2019 (let's hope!). It can only be digested if accompanied by a Lagavulin and it has definitely cost too much for the low quality it managed to achieve in the end.

Sooner or later maybe we will review it, but for the moment we have limited ourselves to commenting on the first episode with a series of live-tweet (you can see some of them Thu e Thu). There would be too much stuff to say and too much inconvenience to try, writing the complete and very accurate review; however, we will try in the future.

The reactions on YouTube

As you may well have seen, the Italian spectators who frequent the web immediately made their voices heard, regarding the story of Adrian. And the only enthusiastic reactions were those of the lovers of the horridwho, at the sight of such ugliness and such embarrassing delusions of protagonism, could not help but uncork the sparkling wine.

Although there have been many reviews and comments written in thick (we mention the the two reviews by Nerd Movie Production e that by Just Nerd), today we are especially interested in the opinion of some youtuber, who jumped at the opportunity to talk about Adrian. In particular, we are interested in the opinion of WesaChannel, GioPizzi, 8bit memories, Snitecs, THE ATTIC OF PIPPO e victorlaszlo88.

The six youtubers have commented and reviewed more or less ironically Adrian, emphasizing its low quality and heavily narcissistic nature. Everyone, for better or for worse, has defined Celentano's series as a trashy opera, good only to entertain those who have a taste for the horrid and to make us the bellini memini. In fact, quoting the Snitecs video the panorama of Italian memes in recent weeks was quite bleak, but now, thanks to Adrian and in Celentano, it is thriving and experiencing a new Renaissance (or Reborn MEME?).

In general, their comments are vitriolic, even if they are always said with great diplomacy.

THE ATTIC OF PIPPO It describes Adrian as "a guy with a face reminiscent of Celentano as a young man, the body resembles Ken the Warrior and speaks with the voice of an old man" and comments dubbing di Celentano as "I need not commit to making it so out of sync". Victorlaszlo88 produced well the two video review committed and punctual on the two episodes of the series, underlining their embarrassing animations and the paternalistic and misogynistic message of the script.

For its part, 8bit memories criticizes the script that "leaks all over the place" and cringia very strong on Adrian's performance as a hero disguised as Fox (editor's note: that in Spanish doesn't translate like Fox! Absolutely not!). GioPizzi, on the other hand, says with certainty that "Adrian it's beautiful ”and throughout the video she weaves sharp sarcastic praise towards the series, which is “the overflowing of the egocentrism and egomania of a fundamental protagonist of the Italian cultural panorama”. Finally, WesaChannel comments disconsolate gentism and populism di Adrian and how Celentano, as a public figure, was in some ways the precursor of today's populist leaders.

In short, nothing that goes beyond sarcastic praise for trashaggine and dispassionate criticism. So what do Mediaset and Studio Sport have to do with it?

Mediaset takes what it wants and turns it over as it wants

Considering that Adrian aired on Canale 5, Mediaset has everything to gain from advertising its product, as they tell me he aggressively did with a pounding publicity and aggressive volumes. Understand me, I don't have a television, so I've never seen or heard of it.

Moreover, after the heavy criticism that Celentano's series has received, Mediaset is in desperate need to offer the public a completely different image of reality, made up of approval and enthusiasm. Especially on the part of young people, who were probably the band that destroyed the most Adrian, treating Celentano's homage to the ego for what it is. That is, an old man's pathetic attempt to convey an image of himself as heroic, young, beautiful and infallible, without having the skills.

Here, perhaps, why Sport Studio, the sports news of Italia 1, broadcast a small one deepening on Adrian. Let's fly over how sad it is that they brought up the animated series with the excuse that Celentano is an Inter player, because these mezzucci are of infinite sadness.

However, there would have been no problem if the ad-disguised-as-in-depth was limited to an interview with some footballer and to reproduce some frames of Adrian: this is very legitimate, for heaven's sake. The problem is that Mediaset wanted to show how young people were positively enthusiastic about the series, and then he began to show, in a very fast and indistinct overview, a series of tweets: if they talk about you on Twitter, the people of the web love you!

But then, not happy to report the memes, Mediaset has gone through the videos of the youtubers who commented on the two episodes of Adrian and, surely noting how none of them spoke well of the series, he decided to run for cover. So, Mediaset took videos of the six youtubers mentioned above e he has selected only very short parts which, extrapolated from their context, seemed express a positive opinion towards Adrian.

De facto, Mediaset has taken content that is not its own, has (to quote GioPizzi) "cut out and bows" to convey the message that young people (and these six youtubers) love Adrian. Obviously false and obviously (and intentionally) misleading message. The youtubers have obviously not been properly mentioned and of course always they will not have seen the beak of a penny of the money that Mediaset and Studio Sport have earned from the advertisements of that service.

And who dares to complain to Mediaset?

As WesaChannel and GioPizzi have pointed out in their videos on this question (you can find them Thu e Thu), Mediaset did not have any problems in appropriating the original content from the youtubers without asking anyone's permission. Permission that, theoretically, should have been granted by the youtubers themselves, who should be the owners of the videos they produce and share on YouTube.

However, this appropriation is particularly disturbing, if you think about the fact that the aforementioned youtubers would never have been able to publish videos with clips from Studio Sport, under penalty of cancellation of the piece and the intervention of the special forces of Adrian.

Of course, one could also object that Mediaset is doing this free advertising to these youtubers, according to the usual philosophy of "we pay you in visibility". But the truth is that, at that speed and without mentioning their names, these content creators can only be recognized by those who already know them.

And the real problem is that, as GioPizzi says, “who's going to tell them” to Mediaset that stealing the original content of others, retouching them, changing their meaning and using them to promote a product during a program that earns money from advertising is wrong? Of course, the youtubers affected could go under the Mediaset studies with their lawyers to claim justice, but the truth is that everything would probably end in a stalemate and with too much expense for youtubers. Expenses that instead for Mediaset are bruscoline.

So, Mediaset knows very well that it can appropriate the contents of the average known Italian youtubers, because it knows that it will not suffer any kind of consequence. And why it's still there the perception that the internet is a lawless far west, where everything is allowed and nothing belongs to anyone. So youtubers, vloggers, twitchers and streamers are anonymous, insignificant entities, not least because they don't have the backing of a powerful company behind them. Therefore, what they do has no value, because in the world of classic television no one becomes famous without being the apprentice of an underpaid slave intern who must remain silent (cit.).

Of course, a couple of years ago a youtuber, Shooter Hates You (aka Shy, aka Alessandro Masala), managed to to convince SkyTG 24 to remove a video that concerned him and that presented him, perhaps involuntarily, as a jackal who profited from the death of Tiziana Cantone. After receiving several complaints on Twitter, in fact, SkyTG 24 would have removed the offending video, replacing it with another that specified that "some youtubers created journalistic content" on the story, leaving the reference to Shy implied. No excuses, of course, but better than nothing.

Mediaset VS YouTube, television VS internet

Perhaps SkyTG 24 had preferred to avoid the risk of a lawsuit (and this would have made sense instead of that of Alliata, huh!), or maybe a libel lawsuit is more scary than a copyright infringement. We do not know.

We do know that though traditional television does not experience the YouTube phenomenon well, as it has been evident for many years now and as it has been repeatedly demonstrated even with the television interviews with some famous youtubers, such as CiccioGamer.

With almost three million subscribers on its channel and followed by a huge crowd of young fans, CiccioGamer89 was the guest of one TV show on Italy 1 (Mediaset always comes back!), where he was ridiculed by the presenters for being a youtuber. Not without a good dose of fat shaming, moreover. THU there is CiccioGamer89's comment on the question, if you would like to see it.

However, events like these also show how the asymmetry between traditional television networks and users of new network platforms is still very strong, despite having been taking TV's death for YouTube for years. And, apparently, networks like Mediaset still have a higher gear, when it comes to making the big voice and scratching out content to others, especially if it is private individuals, not millionaires and belonging to a category of artists that the televisions do not respect.

The truth, however, is that if immovable monoliths like Mediaset cannot be expected to respect these "kids" who make money and views from their bedrooms, respect for copyright and intellectual property should be sought. Especially when dealing with communication and entertainment professionals.

But the truth is also that we will not have this kind of respect for the law by Mediaset and his fellow men, unless it is created a huge media mess, in which newspapers join forces against television networks. Which, honestly, is difficult to achieve.

Nor can we expect these six youtubers to take on the anti-Mediaset judicial crusade: the best they can do is shoot a video, pocket views and related money and have a laugh. And they also do well.

We ourselves can do very little, if not bring back and spread the news in the hope of sensitizing the public on this toxic dichotomy.